Troubleshooting The "The selected item could not be opened" problem

[Koosh]

"The selected item could not be opened. If you purchased this item from Amazon, delete this item and redownload it from Archived Items available in Home."

I keep getting this error! Initially I thought I haven't convert properly with Calibre so I went back to reconvert to .mobi and reuploaded via Calibre to my K3. Still didn't work, so I tried another. I converted it to .azw3 and reuploaded via Calibre to my K3. Still didn't work!

I did some research and I saw a few users getting the problem fixed by restarting the Kindle device. I did so to, but it did not solve the problem! I'm still having that problem. Please help? I've already restarted twice.

[Barty]

Did you install a different font by any chance?

[Mike L]

This may be a stupid question, but why do you need to convert it with Calibre? You say you purchased the title form Amazon, and you are trying to open it on your Kindle. Why can't you just open the actual copy that you purchased?

If that doesn't work, it suggests that you are trying to open it on a different device than the one you specified at the time of downloading. I would suggest you at least eliminate that as a possibility before going any deeper.

Mike

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Koosh

"The selected item could not be opened. If you purchased this item from Amazon, delete this item and redownload it from Archived Items available in Home."

I keep getting this error! Initially I thought I haven't convert properly with Calibre so I went back to reconvert to .mobi and reuploaded via Calibre to my K3. Still didn't work, so I tried another. I converted it to .azw3 and reuploaded via Calibre to my K3. Still didn't work!

Can you view the book in Calibre? If so then it could be a number of things from a corrupted source to a missing font. I would use the mobi-unpack plugin to examine the innards of the book. You can always reimport the html from it and convert from that instead.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Barty

Did you install a different font by any chance?

Yes that could do it. If the font doesn't have special characters and the book requires it. I had that happen once to me. The author had some weird characters on the page that I'd never seen before. I had to edit them out and reconvert to fix.

[echo013]

I have been having this happen as well. Normally before I get this error my kindle will show only half a page of text. I'll click to the next page, notice it was an error, then click back to the reloaded page. A bit after this the book will stop working all together. Is this similar to your problem?

[Koosh]

Originally Posted by Mike L

This may be a stupid question, but why do you need to convert it with Calibre? You say you purchased the title form Amazon, and you are trying to open it on your Kindle. Why can't you just open the actual copy that you purchased?

If that doesn't work, it suggests that you are trying to open it on a different device than the one you specified at the time of downloading. I would suggest you at least eliminate that as a possibility before going any deeper.

Mike

Maybe you would like to re-read what I typed. I, at no point, mentioned that the book I'm having this problem with was purchased from Amazon. Yes it is a stupid question.

Problem has been fixed. I just removed the supposed corrupted copy from my device, reconverted, and re-uploaded. I'm guessing the conversion was corrupted somewhere in between.

Originally Posted by Blossom

Can you view the book in Calibre? If so then it could be a number of things from a corrupted source to a missing font. I would use the mobi-unpack plugin to examine the innards of the book. You can always reimport the html from it and convert from that instead.

I can view the book in Calibre so I was really confused as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the fonts are not supported since the document I'm having trouble with wasn't created with the intention to be put on an e-reader. Nonetheless, I fixed it by reconverting it. So all's good!

Could you teach me more about reimporting the html from a document and convert from that instead? I believe that would produce a more "clean" conversion without any of those special fonts corrupting the conversion.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Koosh

I can view the book in Calibre so I was really confused as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the fonts are not supported since the document I'm having trouble with wasn't created with the intention to be put on an e-reader. Nonetheless, I fixed it by reconverting it. So all's good!

Could you teach me more about reimporting the html from a document and convert from that instead? I believe that would produce a more "clean" conversion without any of those special fonts corrupting the conversion.

Happy to hear you got it fixed. For mobi/azw3 books I user a plugin called Mobi-unpack. You can find where all the other new Calibre plugins are listed in preferences. It basically unzips the books like you can do with a epub to a folder on your desktop. Inside you find the html file. You can use that to edit to your liking. I use Word to edit mine. You then just drag the html into calibre and convert to format of your choice.

I only do this when I need to pretty up a book. I own alot KDP books that need major fixing. Calibre also has in Look n Feel conversation tab a place to remove fonts, colors....etc. I keep those checked to get a good clean copy.